Dam, Dam, Dam

Every once in a while we get an itch to go on vacation! I saw a friend's Facebook post about a cool zoo they went to about an hour away from their house in Las Vegas. I was afraid Wil would think I was CRAZY for wanting to go to Las Vegas just to go to a zoo, but he was game as soon as I said let's go away for the weekend!

The last weekend in February, we packed up the car and the kid and headed to Las Vegas! Wil had done a Hoover Dam tour with his family when he was a kid, but I'd never been. So on the way to Vegas, we stopped and took a tour of the Hoover Dam. 

I learned so much! Did you know, the dam was finished almost two years ahead of schedule? What construction project is EVER finished ahead of schedule? The construction workers only got two days off work each year - can you guess what days? It was Christmas Day and the Fourth of July! I would have thought Thanksgiving, but the Fourth of July is a fun holiday to have off work, too, I guess. 

The original equipment is still in place at the dam for creating the power.

And...it took so much concrete, they actually had an AC type cooling system to help the concrete cool quickly enough that they could keep building.

This was the first time we got to drive on the dam bypass bridge. I think it saved at least an hour off of our trip on the way home, because we didn't have to wind down the mountain, stop for security, stop for dam tourists crossing the street and then wind back up the mountain. The only bummer is that the walls on the bridge are so high you don't know what a cool bridge you're on...or that you should be nervous you're up so high. It just feels like a continuous part of the road.

 A picture of part of the bridge from down at the Hoover Dam.